The game of poker is widely played in many jurisdictions, particularly in the United States of America. A traditional game of poker is a multiplayer game, generally accommodating a minimum of 4 and a maximum of between 8 and 10 players. In a turn of the game, one of the participating players assumes the role of a dealer and deals five cards (an “initial hand”), from a conventional deck of 52 playing cards, to each participating player, inclusive of the dealer. The playing cards in the initial hand are dealt face down to each player who does not, at this stage of the game, disclose the playing cards that have been dealt to him.
Each one of the players is then required to decide, in turn, whether to continue with his participation in the turn of the game (that is, to “play”), or to terminate his participation in the turn (that is, to “fold”), as a function of the playing cards in his initial hand. Any player who decides to fold does not participate any longer in the turn of the game. If all participating players decide to fold, the turn of the game terminates. The first player to decide to play is required to make an opening wager on the turn of the game. Any other player who subsequently also decides to play in the turn of the game is required to match or to increase (“raise”) the size of the opening wager. When the size of the opening wager is raised, players who have made prior opening wagers are required to top up their wagers to match the size of the largest opening wager made by any player who has elected to play in the turn of the game. This phase of the turn of the game continues until every player who desires to play in that turn has made an equivalent opening wager.
All the wagers made by each of the players are accumulated in a single jackpot (“the pot”).
At this stage of the game, each player who has decided to play may, in turn, then decide to retain (that is, to “hold”) any one or more of the five cards in his initial hand. Once a player has decided which, if any, of the five cards to hold, the player may then “draw”, in which the remaining cards of the initial hand are discarded and are replaced by an equivalent number of further cards dealt by the dealer from the deck of playing cards. This phase of the game will be referred to, for convenience, as the drawing phase. If the player does not hold any of the cards in his initial hand, he is then effectively dealt an entirely new hand of five cards at the drawing phase of the game. On the other hand, if a particular player holds all of the five cards in his initial hand, he does not participate in the drawing phase, but still continues to play in the turn of the game.
Once the drawing phase of the game has been completed, each player evaluates the five cards that he has accumulated in the manner described above in order to determine whether they contain any one of a number of desirable combinations of playing cards. The desirability of any combination of playing cards is inversely proportional to the probability of being dealt that particular combination of cards. For a standard deck of 52 playing cards, desirable combinations of playing cards are, in order of increasing desirability: a pair of cards having the same rank (“one pair”); two pairs of cards in which the rank of each pair is different (“two pairs”); three cards each having the same rank (“three of a kind”); a “straight” in which the five cards of a hand are in sequentially increasing rank order, with no restriction on suite; a “flush” in which the five cards are all of the same suite; a “full house” in which three cards are each of the same rank, while the remaining two cards each have another identical rank; “four of a kind” in which four cards of the hand each have the same rank; a “straight flush” in which the five cards are in sequentially ascending rank order and are all of the same suite; and a “royal flush” in which the five cards are all of the same suite and are ranked Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10. Where a deck is used that has fewer than 52 cards, the probability of being dealt a full house is greater than being dealt a flush, making the latter combination of cards more desirable than the former.
After completion of the drawing phase of the turn of the game and evaluation of the playing cards, all the players who have previously decided to play in the particular turn of the game are then again required to decide, in turn, as a function of the playing cards they have accumulated in the manner described above, whether to continue playing or to fold. If all these players decide to fold, the turn of the game terminates. The contents of the pot are carried forward to the next turn of the game. Any player who decides to fold does not participate any further in the particular turn of the game and forfeits all the wagers, he has made in that turn. The first player who made an opening wager may, if he decides to play, make a supplementary wager on the turn of the game. Any other player who subsequently also decides to play is required to match or to raise the size of the supplementary wager. Players who have previously made supplementary wagers are required to top up their supplementary wagers to match the size of the largest supplementary wager. This phase of the particular turn of the game continues until every player who has not folded has made an equivalent supplementary wager. This stage of the game will be referred to, for convenience, as the supplementary wagering stage.
The supplementary wagers made by each of the players who have decided to continue playing in the particular turn of the game are added to the pot.
Once the supplementary wagering stage of the turn of the game has been completed, the players who remain in the game reveal the playing cards in their hands. The hands are compared, and the player with the highest-ranking desirable hand wins the accumulated pot.
The rules of the game of poker have been described with particular reference to a variation of the game called “draw poker”. There are many other variations of the game of poker that are not germane to the essence of the invention and that will not, for this reason, be described here in detail.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the game of poker is a zero-sum game insofar as, in each turn of the game, a gain of the winner is equal to accumulated losses of the other players in the game. It is, however, also known for a party who arranges or hosts a game of poker to levy a commission (“a rake”) on the players or on the accumulated jackpot in order to obtain revenue.
The game of poker is played at both land-based and on-line casinos, at the latter by means of the World Wide Web of the Internet. A general feature of such arrangements is that a player may only play in a poker game at which an unoccupied playing position, or vacancy, exists. If a poker game has no vacancies available, a would-be player may have to wait a considerable time before a vacant playing position becomes available, allowing the player to join the game, which causes frustration and which may cause the would-be player to leave the casino. Conversely, a would-be player may also have to wait for a considerable period before a sufficient number of other would-be players become available to establish a poker game and to enable play to commence, which may also cause frustration and lead to player attrition. Both of these situations are tedious and, particularly in an on-line environment, costly in terms of connection charges to the World Wide Web of the Internet.